Most Beautiful Places In The World # Part 16

Most Beautiful Places In The World

Marlborough, England

Blooming bluebells bring visitors to the Savernake Forest and West Woods near Marlborough in southern England. The ancient forest sites, managed by the Forestry Commission, were replanted with beech trees in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s.

Photograph by Toby Melville, Reuters

Cape Town, South Africa

Boys jump in succession into the cold Atlantic at Clifton Beach. Beach culture is as entrenched in Cape Town as it is in Southern California, but alongside the sun addicts are miles of white sand visited only by seabirds and occasional fishermen.

Photograph by Slawek Kozdras

Aghori Man, Nepal

Vibrant colors cover an Aghori man’s face in Nepal. The Aghoris are a sect of Hinduism, the world’s third largest religion. Most Hindus live in India and neighboring countries.

Photograph by Abrar Mohsin

Florianópolis, Brazil

A kayaker plies the quiet waters of Lagoa da Conceição in Florianópolis on Brazil’s central coast. Floripa, as Brazilians call it, offers a beach-and-party atmosphere without the megacity feel of Rio. Within a 300-mile radius you can find surfing villages, rural tourism, and top-notch national parks.

Photograph by Chris Schmid

Hawaiian Petrel, Mexico

Photographer Alejandro Prieto was in the right place at exactly the right time to get this shot, which he submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest, going on now. “On an expedition at Todos Santos in south Baja California, Mexico, I was searching for big predators feeding on sardine bait balls—marlins, sharks, or tunas—but instead I found this little but very beautiful seabird, the Hawaiian petrel,” he says. “It was feeding on crustaceans. Luckily I was able to capture the moment it submerged its head to feed on the tiny food source.”

Photograph by Alejandro Prieto

Mahó Beach, St. Maarten

Landing at Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten, a looming jet thrills watchers on Mahó beach. The white-sand stretch on the Caribbean island’s Dutch side—the rest is French—is a famous plane-watching spot.

Photograph by Dennis Rivera, The New York Times/Redux

Humpback Whale in Drake Passage

A humpback whale’s tail flukes look almost miniature next to a mammoth iceberg in the Drake Passage. These often rough waters bring adventurous tourists from the tip of South America to Antarctica, home to penguins, seals, seabirds, and more. This photo was submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest.

Photograph and caption by John Kahan

Sunset at Ipanema Beach, Rio

The legendary Zona Sul beaches of Ipanema (pictured here), Copacabana, and Leblon are what most people conjure up when they think of Rio de Janeiro. Long and languorous, they are the source of a compelling beach culture that radiates through these neighborhoods, casting a spell that is cool, carefree, and quintessentially Brazilian.

Photograph by LUZphoto/Redux

Rose Valley in Cappadocia, Turkey

Light-painted rock formations slumber under the night sky in the Rose Valley in Turkey’s Cappadocia region. The rocky landscape is honeycombed with networks of ancient underground settlements and outstanding examples of Byzantine art.

Photograph by David Clapp, Corbis

La Réunion National Park

Under a stormy sky, hikers round a small lake in La Réunion National Park, located on the French island of Réunion in the southwest Indian Ocean. Added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2010, the 247,000-acre park features dramatic, rugged landscapes and valuable ecosystems—including cloud forests, subtropical rain forests, and heaths—that are home to many threatened and endangered species.